There is no such thing as a conservative party in Australia. There has been no such thing since the Howard government, and even Howard was madly spending taxpayers' money to get votes before his demise. Government is getting bigger and more expensive; the current one is outspending Labor. Government no longer has much to do with the country or its people - it is all for the benefit of a distinct political class and their cronies. We are getting closer to the Third World at every election.

Keeping in mind that fact that Jesus was scathingly critical of the ecclesiastical establishment in his time and place, and the fact that opus dei is now very much a part of the "catholic" ecclesiastical establishment ( via a process facilitated by the popes JPII and Benedict), and referring to the essay 10 Shocking opus dei Controversies, I wonder what Jesus would have to say about opus dei if he happened to re-appear again as a living-breathing-felling human being.

According to "catholic" doctrine we are all corrupt fallen sinners, even intrinsically tainted by "original sin".
Can therefore, any sinner or collection of obvious sinners as the opus dei operatives possibly do the "work of 'god'".

I will vote for any party that promises to abandon its ideology and provide the best possible solutions to the problems that exist at the time of its election, based on the best possible evidence. This will entail:

* Commissioning expert and unbiased research into what needs to be done, and acting on the results, not ignoring them.

* Explaining clearly to the electorate why some of their demands cannot be fulfilled with the resources that are available.

* Acting on the assumption that their goal is to improve life for Australian residents, not to gain re-election. (How many more Prime Ministers will we have to sack before we manage to get this across?)

But as long as people like Dominic go rabbiting on about 'values' and 'ideals', I know I am going to get ineffective leaders. I don't want leaders who believe in what they believe in because they believe in it; I want them to have genuine reasons.

This is a good example of the confusion and self-contradiction of the conservatives which makes them only Left Lite.

How can the conservatives have a revival when they believe so much in common with the left? For example:
- government "managing" the economy
- the compulsory government indoctrination of the entire population during their formative years, funded by threats of prison and rape
- government monopolisation of the supply of money and credit
- permanent government inflation of the money supply
- criminalisation of employment at market rates
- criminalisation of trade with other countries except on terms dictated by government
- governmental registration of sexual relations
- a permanent forced negative eugenics program by which the productive classes are persecuted and stolen from to pay people not to work and have babies at public expense
- importing people who oppose western culture and make no secret of their desire to end it
and so on and on and on.

The fact is, that the far left and conservatives have far more in common with each other, than either has with libertarians, who genuinely value human freedom, and are the only ones not caught in perpetual self-contradiction.

What form exactly would a "conservative spring" take? More of the same? Or abrogating their core beliefs? The author doesn't say, because he himself doesn't know.

Mr Menzies, a true liberal, actually got just who creates all our wealth! These folk remain the forgotten people or worse, the endlessly exploited and sold down the river people!

True conservatives, the parasite class, in my opinion, who rather than build a nation and wealth, seek only to quarantine the wealth created by the hands and minds of the other, for pure self interest, self aggrandizement?

We don't need conservative spring, just spring clean to rid ourselves of this self serving Benedict Arnold element!

The good book says, so I'm reliably informed. So as you do unto the least among you, so also do you do unto me!

The simple truth is, if our policies are designed to power lift the lowest, then all those currently above will have to move up the rungs of the socioeconomic ladder, to make room for those climbing from below. [Spring up, (you're standing on my hand again Mr Bligh,) theory!)

Simply put, we don't need a pool of poverty or postcode poverty traps, nor a pool of unemployed/underemployed! (telegraph/horse and cart thinking/ideology) Nor do we need to work harder, just smarter and more productively; and for ourselves, rather than the debt laden speculators we welcome with open arms as investors or our economic saviors!

When they are little more the the purveyor's of the emperor's new clothes, using diabolically dumb conservatives to take what we have, or build, or own.

Leaving us as (MILKED TO THE VERY LAST DROP) tenants in our own land, working for virtual slave wages! Like some of our better off Dairy Farmers! Conservative inspired arranged and organized Deregulation! Worked well didn't it?

[Co-ops and a floor price was old and antiquated and although apparently working and keeping many towns alive and well, needed to be changed, to clean the blue collar element out?]

We need a liberal spring or a truth and reconciliation spring! Not more of the, we know best BS, or he, (businessman and fiscal conservative) who must be Obied! One or two new ideas, (a novel new experience) wouldn't hurt either!
Alan B.

why do we need a conservative spring? Lets see

gw charlatons, human Rights lawyers, mass butchering of unborn, perverts invading education system, attack on fatherhood, signing up with unelected bigotted bodies like the UN, to counter failed marxism, and ever growing size of public service, stop us from regressing to dark age, return some credibility to the total corruption of science (pseudo science), maybe restore some power to South Australia (ha ha), allow farmers to manage own land, stop dividing nation by races, stop importing terrorist and those who hate us, stop dumbing people down as clearly evidenced by getup crowd, do away with the marxist billion dollar abc/sbs

why do we need a conservative spring? Pretty obvious!